With Halloween approaching, I have decided to dedicate a blog entry to the potential ‘scientific’ explanations behind some of our favourite and most enduring mythological creatures: vampires, zombies and werewolves!

well a lot of things I think in religions and writing and stories from a loong time ago show things that involve Vampires, Werewolves, etc. But i think that science could definatly take part in what we call Vampries, Werewovles, etc. I think some of the explinations for these folklores could be true but I don't exactly know but i think this article is interesting.

Are vampires the real deal? Is there now scientific evidence showing that vampires can and will exist no matter what? Astonishing. Clinical trials need to be done to fulfill the needs of every vampire enthusiast, I know I'm on board. Would it be stretch to say we need a 'find real vampires' kickstarter? Teenage girls, begin swooning! On a serious note, there is a vampiric disease called poryphoria, if you aren't familiar with the term, it is one every blood lusting appreciator should check out,

It's crazy because you would not think that Kings and Queens names mean something. I always thought that Royal people always got there names due to other royal peoples in there families or names out of the bible. It blows my mind to think that they have other meanings. I think it's cool and this opens up my mind to what other names mean like Bob, Joesph, and even my name, Alena.

This should explain how my life was on the Rez. We were basically animals in fact we called the kids that were like me " Rez kids" because we were crazy . We ran everywhere, jacking from stores and being animals. But there was always a lot of drinking and drugs even though it's not as bad as pine ridge!!!!!!

12 Things Mexicans Will Do To Celebrate Independence Day (GIFS) (PHOTOS) Huffington Post ... 20.5 million inhabitants, it sits among the world's largest cities.

alenav09's insight:

Its really cool to see how my culture celebrates holidays and stuff and want to learn more so that way i'm more educated in my culture. I also love to learn about other cultiures so this one of the reasons i posted this umm.. post

(TrendHunter.com) Photographer Brian Kelley captured these amazing shots of graffiti writers BEGR and Remio in Detroit at night. These incredible images show west coast culture and the latest clothing collection by...

I wonder if that is what happened to me??? That's funny too because I was living on a reservation and then moved to Denver which was one of the cities they named to encourage Native Americans to move. Wow.

Picking up litter. Buying someone in need a coffee. Or just doling out free hugs. There's a growing movement of people doing nice things for strangers, but do they make for a kinder society?

Elisa Ng

Each week, Elisa Ng trawls the streets of Singapore picking up rubbish discarded by her fellow citizens. She is not searching for treasure hidden in the litter. Her only goal is to leave the city a little cleaner than before.

"I want to encourage other people to pick up a piece of litter every day," she says.

Recently, she chased an errant lorry driver who had thrown a plastic bag from his window. "He looked quite apprehensive and seemed apologetic," she says.

Thankless though the task seems, Ng is just one of many residents of the city who have been inspired by the Singapore Kindness Movement, a government-funded body which aims to promote helpful and courteous behaviour amongst its people.

"It definitely makes a difference," says William Wan, the leader of the movement. "We have changed the way that certain social norms are accepted. People are starting to give up their seats on buses now, which they never used to do."

A similar organisation, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, was founded in Denver, Colorado, in response to the city's "Summer of Violence" in 1993, when dozens of people were killed in gang-related shootings, including several children. One victim of stray gunfire was just 10 months old.

The organisation borrowed the writer Ann Herbert's call for people to "practice random acts of kindness, and senseless acts of beauty".

The phrase has since been popularised on doormats and bumper stickers across the US and encourages Americans to surprise one another with good deeds.

Kelsey Gryniewicz, a director at the foundation, advocates activities such as anonymously leaving hampers of food on neighbours' doorsteps and paying for the person queuing behind you at a coffee shop.

"It's not just about single acts, though," she says. "It's about changing your mentality from day to day."

The World Kindness Movement represents the work of organisations from 23 different countries. "It has gone way past the level of community endeavour," says its secretary general Michael Lloyd-White.

Love letters and kindness may improve mental health

Each year, the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) publishes a World Giving Index, which attempts to track certain types of giving behaviour in 146 countries across the globe.

Top 10 kindest nations

1. Australia

2. Ireland

3. Canada

4. New Zealand

5. United States

6. Netherlands

7. Indonesia

8. UK

9. Paraguay

10. Denmark

Source: World Giving Index 2012

The data is extracted from an annual poll conducted by research firm Gallup and ranks countries according to the proportion of people who have volunteered, helped strangers at random, or donated money to charity in a typical month.

In first position last year was Australia, where a third of the population volunteers each month and two-thirds claim to have helped a stranger and donated money to charity.

Lisa Grinham, from CAF's Australian branch, says that the rise is due to the flooding that hit Queensland and Victoria the year before, pointing out that figures tend to rise in times of national hardship.

Globally, however, the position is very different. "The trend that has been revealed is a disturbing one," says Dr John Law, the chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation. The number of acts of kindness and charity dropped by hundreds of millions last year due to the global recession, he says.

Singapore dropped from 91st to 114th place in the 2012 World Giving Index. The country's own Graciousness Index also indicated that fewer people had experienced "gracious acts" last year.

Children at a school kindness assembly

William Wan of the Singapore Kindness Movement blames the decline on "bread-and-butter issues" such as the rising cost of housing and transport.

In the US, which dropped from first to fifth place in the global index last year, a team of academics is working on a programme of compassion education in schools to try to reverse the decline.

Richard J Davidson from the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison thinks that the level of kindness in society can be improved if children are taught to be more empathetic from an early age.

"Compassion should be regarded as a skill that can be cultivated through training," he says.

The kindness curriculum is currently being taught in 10 schools across Wisconsin. The project is still at the research stage, but "the early signs are promising", he says.

Not everybody is convinced that focussing on compassion in this way is helpful, however.

"We have made altruism a sacred object, so we've been blinded to its deleterious effects," says Barbara Oakley from the University of Oakland, Michigan.

In a new book called Pathological Altruism, she argues against what she sees as a cultural obsession with the notion of kindness.

"There's a misguided view that empathy is a universal solvent. Helping others is often about your own narcissism. What you think people need is often not actually what they need."

Kelsey Gryniewicz doesn't think that the American kindness movement is guilty of that charge, arguing that there are tangible, practical benefits to the activities they recommend.

"It doesn't have to be about cradling people in a bubble of kindness," she says.

In Singapore, William Wan takes a more reflective view. "We must be realistic. We mustn't be naive. Kindness movements can't solve all our problems, but if they can solve some of our problems, why not use them?"

Random acts of kindness…I chose this article because in five years’ time, I would like to be the person in society that is compassionate about our vulnerable communities and willing to implement some realistic strategies to help our communities. Although this is something I chose to work at every day in my current life, I never want to lose focus and sight of the fact that people can make a positive difference and it can take only one person to make this difference. This article was insightful. Although this article stated the importance of acts of kindness within our communities and the obvious benefits this has to our communities, it also brought insight into the narcissistic notion of kindness that is, people helping others to make themselves feel better, however, not really helping others in what they actually need. This was a very important point that I was not expecting this article to state and after some reflection on this topic, I believe that we live in a vulnerable society in some form and it is valuable to be able to randomly act with kindness with being mindful to the vulnerabilities of what others really need. As William Wan also stated in this article that we need to be realistic and not naïve to that fact that kindness movements will not solve all of our problems. I believe what he states in very correct, however, he also states something that is even more important. He states that kindness movements do solve some problems and like I stated earlier in this insight, it only takes one person to make a difference.

Pow Wow Weekend PlannerIndian Country Today Media Network.comIf one of these weekend events are in your area, head on over and enjoy some thrilling dances, lively musical performances, and, of course, delicious traditional foods.

When I was little I used to go to all of these. All the time and even ran for princess. There are so awesome and you learn about our culture fast if you go to one. It's a really awesome and interesting culture so I hope you read this

Mounted to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it floats high above the red planet is the HiRISE telescope, an imaging device capable of taking incredibly high-resolution photos of the martian landscape. It's sent back nearly 30,000 photos during its time above the planet, which have been used by NASA to find clear landing spots for rovers, and by researchers to learn more about the features of Mars' surface.

The stunning views captured by HiRISE have inspired a book from the publisher Aperture, called This is Mars, which includes 150 of its finest looks at the planet. The entire collection is in black and white, however, as that's how HiRISE's images naturally turn out.

But by combining different color filters on the telescope, NASA is able to produce colored versions of most images too. They're known as "false color" images, since they won't perfectly match up with what the human eye would see. False color images are still useful, however, in helping researchers distinguish between different elements of Mars' landscape. They're also downright gorgeous to look through. Below, we've collected our own series of some of the most incredible sights taken by HiRISE throughout 2013.

Wow aliens that's crazy and to think some people actually think that there are no aliens we'll just wow. If you really think about it then you can see that we can't be the only possible life forms out there!!!!!

Well I thought Aliens didn't exist? And if they didn't why are they saying they have found alien made things on Mars. I believe in aliens because there is proof but then you hear someone say no and they try to find some scientific way of proving that aliens don't exist. And some of the pictures here don't really show or prove that aliens made them because I could have just been eroded or gravity formed it like that. There is many explanation that these photographs are not alien made because it could of just been naturally made like that.

How do we have photos of Mars if we have never been there? And there was an article that said they have found water on Mars so it's not impossible if there was life on the planet. But you can't just jump on the conclusion that there are aliens on Mars.

Its really cool to see how my culture celebrates holidays and stuff and want to learn more so that way i'm more educated in my culture. I also love to learn about other cultiures so this one of the reasons i posted this umm.. post

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.